In August, Chris Smith (R-NJ) introduced the "No Taxpayer Funding for Abortion Act", under which all federal funding for abortion would be outlawed except in cases of violent rape. It would also penalize private health insurance companies and employers who provide abortion coverage.
The Smith Bill would mean that women who are drugged and then raped wouldn’t get federal coverage for abortion. It also means women who are mentally handicapped, say with Down Syndrome or the like, wouldn’t receive coverage.
Whether you support abortion or not, saying that someone wasn’t raped because it wasn’t by force is a horrible thing to do to anyone. Rape leaves both physical and mental scars, and only giving credit to the physical ones is downplaying the damage.
And we don’t want to see a return to the days when abortion meant a back alley procedure and high risk of complications or death. The criminalization of what should be a legal service for those who choose to take advantage of it is crazy. If it were made nearly impossible to go to church, there would be public outrage, but the truth is that is a personal choice as well, one that the government shouldn’t mandate. There is only so much the government should be able to dictate in our lives and one of the things that should be exempt are women’s reproductive rights.
Ultimately, it is up to us to choose what we want to do with our bodies.
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